#the welsh flag is cool so cool (do you see a pattern with me and flags with dragons/creatures on them)

[malusienki]

the flag of saskatchewan is one of my favorites to be honest

i have a lot of favorites.

[beardofkamenev]

hi why are u like waging an internet smear campaign against my friends lol it wld be uhhh cool if u stopped doing that. i genuinely dont understand what any of this is about but it all seems to have got very out of hand and nasty so if u could like chill thatd be nice

Hi, thanks for coming off anon. I’m not being sarcastic, I appreciate that you’ve put your name to this. Since you don’t understand the issue, I’m willing to explain further via DM if you wish. That is, if you’re actually open to what I have to say and aren’t just here to blindly defend your friends.

Firstly, I didn’t even know Tom existed until someone sent me their vague. I can’t “smear” or “cancel” Tom because I don’t know anything about their views other than that one post. I don’t ‘vague’ and I certainly don’t hide behind anon. If I have an issue with someone, I will confront them directly and that’s what I did. Tom was clearly misled because none of this has anything to do with Henry VII. The rest of ‘us’ have no interest in him. The issue is and has always been racism, from historians and in the ‘fandom’. We are not “friends”. But we all share the opinion that Olivia’s — and especially Taylor and Haley’s — behaviour towards others lately has been unacceptable.

To your first point: I have not been the one continuing the drama. Until now, the last I ever addressed it was 18 February (really, 14 February). You can check for yourself. But as Olivia’s friend, you’d have seen that she continued to make accusations about ‘us’ since then. I knew about them, but did not respond. A separate issue recently began, involving a black classicist calling Lucy Worsley “racist” for using the n-word. Taylor and Olivia (among others) ‘vagued’ @juliacaesaris​ about it, saying OP “dismissed a woman’s credentials” because of their tag that she was an “art historian, not a historian”. Clearly, that was NOT the issue. When OP found out about your friends’ vagues, they confronted them with the screenshots (as you can see). That caused Olivia to bring up the February issue again with the same accusations about ‘us’. That is what finally prompted me to make my recent post about her. Olivia said she refused to read it (as is her right) because it is “beneath her”, but she nevertheless concluded that it was “full of lies” and has since made substantive claims about its contents... but she has not read it. 

I am not white. I am Filipina. The majority of us on ‘this side’ are not white. They are mostly black and Latino. We’ve said this many times. This may surprise you, as Olivia has repeatedly claimed that we are are all white. We are not, and frankly, I think our opinions on racism should count for something. Olivia has recently made new claims about my post that I’ll clear up now. Regarding her claim that I’ve somehow tried to lecture her (a Welsh person) on being Welsh, the only thing I said in my post was:

She [Taylor] then claimed we called her “anti-Welsh” (another fucking lie) to make it seem like a bunch of cRaZy blacks and browns were attacking poor, innocent white her (with Olivia coming to the rescue, of course).

That refers to a different issue in January (about Taylor and Haley, not Olivia), which I’ve also addressed in my post. You can read it and decide for yourself if I actually presumed to lecture Olivia on being Welsh. There is a pattern here and you probably won’t like to hear what I’ll say next, but I’ll say it anyway: Olivia has made many, extreme accusations about us, but has not given any evidence for them. We, at least, have given some kind of evidence to support our accusations against her, and Taylor and Haley. That alone should raise red flags.

Now, if you want to question me (genuinely and in good faith), I’ll be happy to answer all your questions in the DMs. Tom can do so as well, as I don’t have personal feelings against them (though the vague was beyond stupid). But whatever you choose, that should be your decision to make, not Olivia’s, and if she’s even remotely interested in putting an end to this, she will let you hear me out.

28/03/2021: I’ve since been informed by juliacaesaris that they don’t actually identify as black (though they have some close black ancestry), and they’ve also corrected that in the notes. That being said, I don’t think you have to be black or any other minority to take issue with racism or be an ally.

[tumblunni]

My ideas if Wales gets referenced in this new britain region which is probably unlikely but we can hope:

* Another sheep pokemon/a mareep regional variant/just mareep being common over here

* llamhigyn y dwr regional variant of gligar! As a kid i always thought gligar was meant to be one of those! Its a mytholigical flying frog with a scorpion tail, and really the only reason i dont think gligar is based on it is because its ground instead of water type. Like its really specifically similar right down to the wings being webs under the arms!

* Welsh Lady pokemon! (The traditional costume kids wear at eisteddfods)

* Maybe instead some sort of legendary based on eisteddfods in general? Theyre a poetry/art festival where the winner gets "the chairing of the bard" aka just imagine ur average school contest except if ur in wales u literally get knighted with a fake sword, crown and The School's Personal Throne. Its very weird in retrospect but it just seemed normal when i was a kid. I won it once and i was so anxious having to go thru the big celebration thing!! Like aaa just let me take my certificate and run! XD So yeah maybe a legendary based on the eisteddfod throne itself? Its called a throne but its more of a fancy wooden chair with patterns carved into it. So some sort of wooden dragon! And the legend would be that only the most talented bards can ride it and it bucks off anyone it thinks isnt purehearted enough. And maybe it could have a lovespoon for a tail cos thats also another wooden welsh thing. (Fancy carved spoons for good luck and/or romantic gifts)

* welsh cake pokemon!! Theyre just a sweetened scone with raisins in it, but i think it could be really cute as a design. Im thinking a rock type that just coincidentally looks like a cake with raisins, and it rolls around sideways like a big goofy crab~

* or if you wanna go for other local foods maybe mix the kelpie with bara bryth? (Seaweed bread paste stuff) So its just a loaf of bread that evolves into a badass horse and it would make no sense to anyone except brits, lol.

* perhaps a legandary based on the bard taliesin? It could be similar to nebby in starting off with a weak baby form but then becoming a badass! Cos his origin story was that he wasnt naturally all super cool so talented at singing that he could make literal magic happen just by sheer creativity. Instead he accidentally drank a magic potion of creativity that a witch made, and his abilities came at the cos of Pissing Her Off Forevermore. So maybe the baby form cpuld be a witch's cauldron? And have a tail made of chains to symbolize how he was enslaved as that witch's assistant and managed to escape with her most valuable prize. And then his ethereal fancy humanoid form could maybe be similar to meloetta's living music thing but more with calligraphy instead? But perhaps still have a similar chain tail to show his origins, except now the links in the chain are all fancy calligraphy Os, lol

* accompanying legendary possibilities: ceridwen (the evil witch from that story) or morfran (her innocent son) Morfran did nothing wrong but is often painted as more of the villain of the story than she is, simply because he was black. Yeah there's racism even back in our mythology, ugh...! I always felt so depressed for morfran cos the story is that ceridwen only made this super magical potion of being the best bard ever cos everyone said her son was the ugliest man on earth and EVEN SHE AGREED so she thought she had to give him some magic powers to stop people from hating him. And instead taliesin steals it and goes off to be the most powerful and respected and also handsome man ever, the end. And seriously the ONLY THING they mention about why this child is ugly is that he was "black like a crow" and also his name means evil crow. And thats just the end of his story forever, being some other dude's origin story and then forgotten into the void :( So like hey a pokemon criticizing that part of the myth wouls be great too! Like maybe have morfran be a counterpart legendary like latias to latios and he just looks equally beautiful with a reversed colourscheme of dark skin and white calligraphy patterns. And maybe the pokedex entry could be like "taliesinmon got its powers thru a magical gift from meloetta" and "morfranmon worked really hard for its powers all on its own and also is very socially anxious and relateable and tumblr user tumblunni's favourote character in all british mythologies despite also representing the worst part of our nation but hey its not this man's fault please rescue him ok" Srsly its not like its common to see taliesin referenced in fiction but morfran is even more forgotten and i think he needs at least one positive fictional depiction to make up for being screwed over in the original myth.

* Another myth with unintended bad messages is the one of Blodeuwedd or Dwedd (friends may recognize that i named my Gourgeist after her!) Her story is that she was an artificial human created out of plants in order to be some guy's sex toy basically. Yet she's the villain of the story cos she refused to marry him and ran off with another guy. Like seriously she was BORN to marry this dude! Even if he's the big mythological prince we're supposed to root for, with modern morality perspectives its kinda impossible to see it that way. At least unlike morfran she actually does do other stuff to establish her as a villain other than just existing, she comes back with her new boyfriend to kill the dude who made her and thus set the course of history awry cos he was A Really Inportant Destiny Prince And All. But seriously dude this is 100% your own fault for being creepy enough to not want to date real women and instead have some messed up preprogrammed woman who'd do whatever you want. "The only reason she wouldnt obey like he wanted must be because the seed of evil was in her heart" yeah no maybe it was the seed of free will u bastard. Anyway they have a funny sequence where prince douche mc douchebag is prophesized to never be killed by etc etc etc so dwedd and her new boyf have to trick him into THE MOST CONTRIVED CIRCUMSTANCE EVER to find a loophole. I think it was something like one foot on a goat and one on a bucket while at the border line between two countries at the crack of dawn? And as fitting a standard boring hero story of course eeeevil dwedd gets thwarted and prince pompous is ressurected and she's punished forever by being turned into an immortal owl for some reason.

* SO YEAH! Plant owl legendary! I just thought this myth in particular would be cool cos a female plant legendary with a disney villain aesthetic instead of the cliche pretty sexy thing everyone would probably expect. Make her bombastic and badass and terrifying!!! The pumpkaboo line is the closest thing so far cos bat pumpkin is KINDA close to daffodil owl. At least in terms of spooky aesthetic, lol

* oh and also her boyfriend was named gronw pebr and honestly he barely does anything in the whole story but he has a really cool name so i felt like mentioning it

* our national flower is the daffodil and our national vegetable is the leek so maybe a farfetch'd variation with a daffodil? Or maybe a saucepan or somethin. It could kinda work with farfetch'd origin, plus one of our most famous nursery rhymes is about saucepans. AR GATH WEDI SCRAPU GROOKEY BACH

* our national animal is actually the dragon not the sheep! So definately give us some good dragon types!! Our flag is a dragon so maybe our legendary could be that? And perhaps reference the whole "red dragon beats the white dragon symbolizing how much england sucks" legend by having it have two forms like minior or darmanitan and the weaker cowardly defensive one is england. Just sayin!!

* i dont think you can really make a pokemon personification of england conquering and literally owning us and us taking so long to even get considered a separate country again and be able to have our native language in schools except it was already so many generations passed of it being forbidden to be spoken that barely anyone still knew it and even nowadays when we have billingual road signs the rate of billingualism is incredibly low and im really jealous of my sister growing up in a school that taught it from a young age cos i was thrown into intermediate level welsh without having the basic lessons and thus nevee managed to learn it at all and felt both stupid and disconnected from my ancestors irretreiveably

* MAYBE A RUGBY POKEMON I DUNNO LOL

[nationalssquash]

Semis Briefs

Emily out, Jazz through again ...

Emily Whitlock (on her birthday, no less) suffered a foot injury this morning and went to hospital for a check - the X-ray revealed no fracture but  she was advised not to play, so Jasmine Hutton got a walkover for the second day in a row (dare we call her ‘Jammy Jazz’ ??)

Makin keeps Welsh flag flying

[1] Joel Makin (Wal) 3-1 [3/4] Adrian Waller (Eng) 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 11-2 (62m)

Top seed Joel Makin avenged his World Teams defeat against Adrian Waller as the Welshman won in four games to give Wales a finalist for the third year in a row - albeit in different draws!

Makin was well on top in the first, but Waller steadied, saved a game ball and levelled 12-10. In Joel’s own words he needed to up the pace after  that,which did the trick as he took the third 11-7 and with Waller fading, the fourth 11-2.

“He came in with a lot of confidence. He had a clear idea of what he was going to do – slow me down and use the height, try and get down the middle of the court and attack me.

“It was effective for a time, he was slowing me down, so I knew that I had to play a little bit faster and take my chances a bit more.

“I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. James has got through the draw unbelievably well early on.

“You only have to give him a little chance and he puts the ball away. I played him a couple of weeks ago and it was a tough game.

“He knows how to win these tournaments all through his career so I’m excited to see how I get on against him.”

Great effort George, but ...

[2] James Willstrop (Eng) 3-1 George Parker (Eng) 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7 (48m)

James Willstrop reached his tenth Nationals final - a record he now shares with Nick Matthew - as he overcame a spirited, gritty and skilful performance form George Parker, four games that had the crown at the David Ross Sports Village enthralled and probably hoping for a fifth!

The first was close up to six-all then James quickly wrapped it up, and an early lead in the second enabled him to double his advantage. The third was close  all the way, and in an at times frantic ending, George pulled one back.

James was on top in the fourth, and soon enough that eleventh final appearance was booked.

George was very good. He’s a class player and he kept his head and cool today. He played great squash and we had a great match. He’s a class act. I’ve known that for a long time and I knew how good he was so that’s why I gave him respect and needed to play very well to beat him. It was anything but easy.

You just have to do all the things you’ve been doing for years. If he’s putting the pressure on you just have to say it’s okay and not panic, let’s just do the things that I do in practice every day. You just have to have faith in that. If it doesn’t happen then you’ve given your best and you’ve lost, if it does happen then you win. You just have to bring it down to the simplest things, concentrate and try and work through it.

That’s the great thing about squash. You have phases where one player is stronger than the other and the other player has to react. It’s a constant battle of psychology.

I’m an Englishman. I know Adrian more than Joel but they’re both good guys. Joel will be tough to beat at this tournament no question. He’s the form player that’s here but Adrian played really well at the World Team Championships. I rate him really highly and on a glass court he’s very attacking and has a lot of options, so he’ll make it very hard for Joel. I’ve got no preference but… Adrian.

Perry in five again

[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) 3-2 [3/4] Millie Tomlinson (Eng) 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 6-11,11-7 (60m)

Top seed Sarah-Jane Perry made it through to her third Nationals final, but as yesterday she needed all five games to see off the challenge of first time semi-finalist Millie Tomlinson.

Each game followed a similar pattern - one player would get an early lead of two or three points, and went on to take the game with the other player unable to close the gap - needs checking, but the lead may never have changed hands.

So, SJ took the first and third, Millie levelled twice, but it was SJ who controlled the fifth.

It was very up and down. I thought Millie played really well. In patches I thought I played some good stuff but then sometimes I just lost my focus a bit and she took full advantage of that. I’m really happy to be through and relieved at the end. I finished strongly but I’ve just got to keep trying and keep going.  

Millie’s really fit and strong so you know physically she’s going to stay in there and get stuck in, get a lot of balls back. She’s going to use that to her advantage and that’s clever play from her. I had to use my physicality in the right way and try and nullify hers. I did a little bit, but not as much as I would’ve liked but I’m not feeling too bad after that physically. A bit of recovery and we should be good for tomorrow.

It’s a really prestigious event and something I look forward to every year and actually I’ve had extra build up because I didn’t get to play last year because I was still injured so I haven’t played it for a couple of years. It’s something where you want to look back on your career and be able to say I won a few National titles. I’ve been stuck on one for quite a few years now so I’ll be gunning for whoever I’ve got to play. It’ll be someone new for me in Nationals so that will be interesting.